Blind Spots in the American Education System: Session 136 with Kim Berens

Dr. Kim Berens (@KimberlyBerens5) joins me for a third time to discuss her new book, Blind Spots: Why Students Fail and the Science That Can Save Them.* In this show, we talk about her motivation to write this book, what she believes is wrong with the current approach to educating children in the United States, and what can be done to remedy this situation.

Like our recent episode with Amelia Bowler earlier this month, this is another great example of people trained in Behavior Analysis stepping out of our community and speak directly to a broader community. In short, it's an excellent model of dissemination, and should be applauded for this reason, along with all the other excellent attributes of the book.

I was honored to write a blurb for the promotion of the book, and if you'll indulge me, I'll share it here:

In 1984, B.F. Skinner wrote The Shame of American Education, in which he described how the American educational system failed to incorporate scientifically validated instructional practices. Sadly, this paper is just as relevant after almost four decades since its publication. In Blind Spots: Why Students Fail and the Science That Can Save Them, Dr. Kimberly Berens courageously picks up where Skinner left off by shining a light on the dysfunctional practices of the American educational establishment. In doing so, she debunks many popular myths that pervade current educational practices. More importantly, Dr. Berens offers concrete solutions for helping all students learn through the application of the natural science of behavior. This is a book that should be read by every parent, school board member, administrator, and teacher.

I could go on and on both about this book as well as the interview I'm about to play. But instead, I'll just ask you to give the show a listen, and if you're so moved, to pick up a copy of the book. Or even better, gift a copy of the book if you happen to know a teacher, school administrator, and so forth.

Here are the links for the references that came up in Session 136:

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2 Comments

Sarah Goldberg

This was brilliant. So stimulating. Her decades of quality experience show clearly. Thank you Matt for asking important questions and bringing structure to the breadth and amazing knowledge and insight Kim brings. She speaks with such a eloquence and fluency; absolute pleasure to listen to.
I am a BCBA who wishes that I and others in the field used the science of precision teaching and scientific method properly. The truth is that the % of opportunities charts are not acceptable for our field. I think what she said about the field not using their own science and therefore unable to be able to disseminate is a truth that I have never heard anyone up in the ranks say out loud! This is so true… so true. I believe the primary reason for this is that for the most part, it is very difficult to assign precision teaching to social behavior. When you are teaching a child how to carry a conversation, read social cues in body language, self monitor their actions, increase self-awareness, emotional expression, self-regulation, creating and sustaining relationships etc etc these are skills that occur in the natural environment, are difficult to track and take data on and therefore do not align well with a direct learning method for complete mastery/proficiency across settings.
Kim is focusing on education; subject matters that are able to be broken down into component skills, taught via direct instruction. As a BCBA doing work for children who are diagnosed with autism, many excel in scholastic areas and are suffering and challenged during on the playground! As a BCBA targeting social emotional deficits that occur in social settings vs. contrived direct setting, should the same model be employed? CAN it be employed?
The fact is that breaking down human social emotional behavior into operational definitions is tiresome and in-authentic… Attention, multi-tasking, sustained attention, task completion, eye contact, matching to sample, emotions etc can be taught and tracked etc… and these are likely many of the component skills to many social skills; however that is often not enough to reach proficiency to children who are not naturally attuned to successful social interaction.
I am inspired to teach social emotional learning in the sophisticated scientific method that Kim applies to her Fit Learning but how ?

Matt Cicoria

Thanks for the glowing praise!!! I’ll definitely pass this on to Kim and will let you know if she offers and answer.

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